We will be enterprise-agile by 2020: Krishnan Ramanujam, President, TCS

TCS will be one of the largest, perhaps the largest company in the world, going through this kind of agile transformation, says Krishnan Ramanujam.

Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest IT services provider, wants to change its model by 2020 to deliver large projects in short sprints of development, a process called agile. The company is changing its workspaces, its contracting structure, its appraisal process, and even how it conducts meetings,
TCS President Krishnan Ramanujamtold
Jochelle Mendonca in an interview.
Edited Excerpts:

Companies have been talking about agile for decades. What is making TCS put its weight behind the development model now? As a concept it has been around for decades. But now, because of the combination of collaboration and communication technologies, it is possible for enterprises to adopt agile to deliver enterprise-class projects. About 20 years ago, agile was still a concept. There are documented case studies of the US government, army and NASA who have delivered cool projects with agile with big benefits. But those required everyone to be in the same room. Which enterprise can do that? Can TCS have everyone in the same room? It’s not possible.

So it was not mature enough to let large enterprises process large workloads to be able to deliver those outcomes. It was always a cool thing restricted to small projects that could be done in three months... But that was never going to be able to help a Fortune 2000 company with billions in revenue and people spread all over the place. Because of the combination technologies that have revolutionized the ability of companies and individuals to communicate, agile’s time has come.

IT companies have used the old model of sequential software development for years. How is agile better for technology clients? Doing things sequentially is called the waterfall model and that waterfall way of working has been the bane of large programs. In effect, the company that is putting its money at risk is taking a leap of faith that the returns will come five years later, seven years later. Even though I have written a business case saying three years later I will get this, it is a leap of faith at the end of the day. Agile, on the other hand, gives the ability to break up that big piece of work with a concept called minimum viable product. Do a small thing, prove the benefits, and keep moving on. So the business benefits are upfront. You can do things much faster.

Why is agile so much more efficient? The benefits come also from what you don’t have to do as much as from what you do. It eliminates a lot of work– which is just overhead–management communication, handoffs, all that is not required today because everyone knows everything. There are standup meetings every day where issues get discussed, and these are typically 10-15 minutes meetings. Do we have everything we need to do today; did everything we did yesterday work smoothly; what are the issues; can we solve these ourselves as a team; if not, do I need to escalate this to the next level. That’s all there is on the agenda. I would say meeting durations are cut by half, if not more. I am very tempted to say 90%.

What steps is TCS taking towards enterprise-wide deployment of agile? We will be enterprise-agile by 2020. That is a big internal change initiative we are undergoing. TCS is a pioneer in agile. Still, most of our peers and competitors are talking about how agile is about co-location, and how you can do cool projects and small projects with that. TCS is talking about location independent agile and the real muscle behind how agile can be of relevance to Fortune 2000 companies. So we also have to go through a massive internal transformation. We have to do it in four parts—agile-ready workforce, agile-ready workplace, agile-ready offerings, and agile-ready partnerships (with customers). By the end of this year, we will have over 600 agile-ready workspaces. Roughly between 100 and 150 people per workspace is where we will be, which is a staggering amount. TCS will be one of the largest, perhaps the largest company in the world, going through this kind of agile transformation.

The waterfall model used to have long-term deal contracts. How is TCS dealing with the contracting aspect of this new model? Today, this is evolving. Today, fixedcapacity contracts are a popular way to implement agile projects, because I give you 10 scrum/agile teams. Today, projects don’t get funded, teams get funded. Because the fundamental thing is not fixed. It is all subject to change. You fund teams, you don’t fund the outcomes. Within that, the best thing that the team can produce is paid for. I am sure other ways will evolve. You can also do agile contracting in the traditional sense but that, in many ways, can be very inconvenient both to the customer and to us. If the decision is to take a project or team away, that decision is taken together. It isn’t one party making a decision and telling you. That is what the collaboration is about. Customers are as much a part of these teams.

Is there a big change in how you plan your revenue viability and hiring? That is not a big change. The planning methodology needs to change. Even when customers signed large contracts, they gave a broad range. That doesn’t change. The manner in which that range is consumed has changed. So our ability to plan, whether it is infrastructure or hiring, does that completely go for a toss? No, it doesn’t. Because you can make those changes in bits.